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Conservation Illustrations

I’ve been working on some new illustrations highlighting some causes I feel passionate about. I’m hoping to get involved with some environmental charities and organisations. It all started when I watched the inspirational and disturbing film #blackfish which spurred me to create the illustration ‘Whales should be wild’.

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Studio space

Here’s a little glimpse at my home studio, at home in North Leeds. This is where I’m happiest, drawing and listening to music :D

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New Robot Gif!

Here is my new GIF celebrating having lots more time to illustrate! I’m absolutely loving working from home a bit more, and am enjoying some exciting new projects!

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Dollhouse project

Mandi Johnson is a creative blogger who describes herself as a ‘nostalgia addicted style enthusiast’. Over on her fab website http://makingniceinthemidwest.com Mandi shares what inspires her in the design world, as well as trying out loads of brilliant craft projects. 

I was delighted when Mandi contacted me to say she’d built a modernist dollhouse and featured one of my prints in miniature! It really made me smile to see my artwork in mini on her dollhouse wall, and I must say I was blown away by the dollhouse itself! It’s so detailed. The tiny little handcrafted furniture is so stylish I wouldn’t mind a life size version :)

You can see more of Mandis’ process here  and you can also see my Jaws print ‘We’re gonna need a bigger boat’ over on my own website 

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Guardian Gift Guide 2015

The Guardian have kindly featured The Map Colouring Book in their Christmas Gift Guide list for 2015. What an amazing honour. I illustrated the book last year and it was published by Michael O’Mara/Buster Books in July. 

It makes me really happy thinking that someone might have my book under the tree this year, I put a lot of work into making it interesting and fun to colour.

Merry Christmas everyone! :) You can buy the book here...(along with lots of other cool gifts from other people)

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2015/nov/19/christmas-gift-guide-2015-shopping-buy-online

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The Map Colouring Book

I am delighted to announce that my first book published by Buster Books is now out! It was quite a large project... I worked on it over many months whilst I was travelling, which was perfect because it’s a giant Map Colouring Book of the world, full of colour-in animals, people and buildings from all over! Hopefully kids and adults alike will enjoy it :) It has tear out pages so the little ones can keep their drawings and stick them up on the wall!

Buy it now on Amazon:

http://www.busterbooks.co.uk/books/the-map-colouring-book-9781780553610/

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Pottery

During my final months in New Zealand I joined a pottery class, and experimented with underglaze pencils. Here’s a selection of what I made!

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You're a pattern, Harry.

Continuing on with my repeat pattern designs, and as an excuse to practice my illustrations of people, I've had a go at illustrating some of the memorable characters of Harry Potter. Hope you like it! 

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Ladies and gentlemen wearing hats.

A two part series of patterns illustrating characters wearing hats! More patterns at http://www.nataliehughes.co.uk

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Patterns

I've been designing patterns the last few weeks. More can be found at http://www.nataliehughes.co.uk

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Harry Potter embroidery

Just for practice, and since I'm currently reading the Harry Potter books for the first time (maybe the last person on the planet who hadn't read them?) I decided to have a go at a little embroidery of Harry. Here it is! 

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Christchurch Charm

After a really fun and interesting visit to Christchurch I decided to make a little charm for my charm bracelet, as I am collecting them from anywhere I travel to in the world. I was inspired by several projects which have popped up in the wake of the 2010 earthquake which ravaged the city. A few clever people have been rescuing native timber from the beautiful weatherboard homes which are being demolished due to earthquake damage. (Many of the demolition companies are chipping the wood rather than saving it for reuse, even though it is often perfectly good timber) They are then creating beautiful furniture and jewellery out of the wood, which I think is a nice, positive use for the wood which would otherwise be destroyed. There are also a few people creating sculptures from peoples crockery which broke in the quake, meaning these people can still have a 'use' for their former precious wedding china etc, which is rather poetic I think :)

We went for a wander along some of the streets in the east of city, which were some of the worst hit areas. It's incredibly sad and spooky to see...years later there are hundreds of empty, damaged homes, many have already been demolished, leaving behind overgrown weeds and a very eery, empty feeling. We found bits of wood littered all over the path of one street from a nearby derelict house. I salvaged a tiny scrap of weatherboard wood and took it home to cut into a house shape. After a bit of sanding and painting I think it makes quite a sweet reminder of my time in Christchurch, a beautiful city, which is remerging as a very cool place as they rebuild.

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Embroidery experiment.

While I've been roaming around the south island of New Zealand I've taken the opportunity to try some new creative things. It's been so satisfying to create something from scratch without the use of a single computer or moment of Photoshop (after many, many hours screen time completing a children's book commission, which I'll share later) Looking forward to trying more.

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More from the South Island...

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South Island, New Zealand

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The land of the long white cloud

After leaving Australia we arrived in New Zealand, pretty much my favourite country in the world! I'd visited for 4 months, 5 years ago, leaving with some amazing memories and friends, so it felt amazing to be back..this time to meet my kiwi fella's family.

So much has happened since the end of October, it would be hard to sum up in one blog post, for starters here's a selection of my photos from around the north island of New Zealand. 

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The Great Ocean Road

After a brief stop in Melbourne we continued our adventure by driving down the Great Ocean Road, which was a pretty awesome drive. We saw plenty of wildlife on our drive, and in a wildlife park I also managed to take my favourite photograph of the trip...one very happy echidna.